La Paz - to Uyuni.. No wait.. Salinas?

This was an adventure I really didn´t chase.

I was riding early in the morning. The scenery was quite dull, my hands were chilly and I was thinking about yesterday. After practicing a lot, guitarplaying, and having a delicious sushi meal, Fernando showed up at last. I had a potential buyer, and went to talk with his friend about it. In the end, I said I´d be going to Uyuni, and if this guy would buy my bike for 3500usd, I would return.
I´m online to see if he´s replied, and to buy my ticket to New York, then Norway.
It started to rain on my way to Oruro, and I thought about staying, as I was freezing cold. I changed my mind and clothes, then continued. Was going to go to Challapata and stay there, but the riding improved with the scenery of impressing colours and yellow flower, framed roads. I stopped and talked a bit with a woman sheparding cows, thinking about how different our lives were. Then I was off, and noticed that the place was called Poopo. I realized then that I might not be mature enough for this, after all.
Another woman I talked to, reminded me how they always seem shocked that I´ve come all this way because there are so many dangerous people out there. There seem to be a true fear for the unknown in both cities and towns. I had to say that I had only met good people. Other friends say that they get advices about not going places, and that place will say the exact same about that place.


The roads are dangerous, as they´re not paved and suddely consist of deep sand. Two guys in a truck wanted to ride with me just in case I´d slip, but after they suddenly drove past me in a sandy area, so that I couldn´t see, I decided that going with them would be even more dangerous. I was tired at this time, and really just wanted to get there, safe and sound. I was mostly worried about Tornado. There were two rivers I had to cross, and the first one was just fine: put my legs in the air and made everyone around grin. The second one however, is the main reason why I´d dread the thought of going back there, to La Paz. The beginning of the crossing is like the smaller river; flat and seemingly okay. But you can´t see the bottom, its deeper and suddenly there were bumps and rocks. I thought I was losing Tornado at one point, and it was dreadful...
The two guys caught up with me, and one of them tried to convince me to wait up at the next village. After seing his almost empty whiskey bottle and the druel on his chin, I decided that, no.
Maybe I should have, because I think that was where I took a wrong turn. Somewhere along the road, I did, and went twice as far, to realize after talking to a woman that finally could tell me that "you´re not on the way to Uyuni, but Salinas". Everyone else before that had just answered "I don´t know". It didn´t even occur to me that I wasn´t, as I had followed the main road all the way.
I had no idea where Salinas was, or what. I just followed directions, hoping that they were true. I passed by a massive crater and some of the most amazing landscape I have seen, and I couldn´t bring myself to care. My mind was sick of it all. I had been too stubborn and pushed it too far.
The sun was beginning to go down, and still I was far from anything. I saw a truck and rushed after it. The truck never responded to my honking, that bastard, and instead I had to break for my life as a big ditch suddenly cut off half of the rocky dirtroad. This was Not good timing or the place for a tumble. Both of us made it just fine, but I had had it. The thought of camping out in nowhere, next to my bike that was halfway down a ditch, so that I couldn´t lift it alone, wasn´t really what I needed at that moment.
It didn´t take more than two minutes for two cars to show up and help me out. One of the cars were going to guide me to Salinas. I had been on the right road, but it was nice to be certain. The people helping me, and reaching Salinas, which turned out to be an amazing place, brought me one step away from crying from relief. Never go all that way in one day.
I´m staying up the hill in a pretty hostel with a kitchen, lots of room, a nice staff, beautiful view and a nice Polish girl thats working on her master in nutrition.
Here in Salinas, everyone says hello, and its safe to walk alone at night time. They also say that Uyuni is a shabby tourist town and that you can´t go far into the Salars, anyway. So I guess my wrong turn was a lucky one.






The reason why she´s here is the vegetable they´re growing here, which has become a large export merchandise, and she´s trying to find out how their diet has changed. Unfortunatly for the growth, they´re not able to think ahead, and don´t use crop rotation, so that the crops get worse year by year. She´s also told me about a large amount of unplated trucks that normally pass through the town, from Chile. They just rush past everything, past the police station as well, where the two cops are powerless.



I´ve been sunbathing today, walked a bit around, talked to the polish girl. Its nice to relax now. Here, I feel no rush. To avoid that river, I´ve been recommended to wrap up my engine to protect it from salty water, and cross over to Uyuni, very slowly. Its really a big pool of water, so that no tours actually go to the island, these days. I´m interested to see how the island sustains itself for that long at a time. The information guy said that I could make a deal within the hotels here and there, that if I didn´t arrive on time, they´d send people for me. Should´ve had a phone!

So awesome to go for a run with the polish girl, who´s training for a marathon. It was six kms uphill, to a beautiful sunset, then 6 back down again. I did go a bit too far, but all is good! I saw Chile. It was so nice to see that my body could still get the job done despite all this travelling. Repeating the run tomorrow, after the cooking competition that´s getting the town all excited. I´m helping out a bit.

Coroico – La Paz - Sucre - Potosi

Fernando gave me quite a shock when he told me that he wished to buy Tornado. We talked a great deal about it, and I was to think about it as I went to Sucre and Potosi for a few days. That way, I could go straight to Uyuni, without a detour. It was also good to ride a bus for a bit, only for the realization that I don`t want to sell him. Talking to Victor about northern Argentina also confirmed this. I grinned by his comment on that I did better on bad roads than on paved, good ones, anyway.
Riding from Coroico to La Paz is beautiful; lots of green, turns and climbing. In the end, though, we were just too heavy to make it all the way up. He knew where to pick me up, so he told the bus driver to take me to the terminal, with all the stuff, where he picked me up after.




We then ate, arranged all the stuff, washed the bike, sunbathed, and went to play beach volleyball in the southern part. There`s a nice park there with an entrance fee of 3bolivianos. In the park, there were a whole bunch of Norwegian volunteers that we played with. It was a bit strange to return to being a gringo in La Paz after many days of no tourists and little towns. I was once again struck by how strange and fascinating La Paz it. It`s never boring to look at.
I also learned about the tsunami that had struck so terribly, and I want to send my best wishes to everyone involved.
The same evening, I got on that thirteen hour bus ride to Sucre, a city with a very good reputation. I like it. I`ve found a lot of nice places to spend my time; a lovely main park, a market with great juices(had 5 and a half glass of three different juices for breakfast with some other gringos, and a very good salteña), a nice tea place to read at night, etc. I`m staying at hostel Amigo, which is strange. They charge you to watch a movie in the tv room, so no one uses it.

I`ve done shopping, fixed my jacket, treated myself(or my hair) at a hairdresser, tried a good mondongo, read, seen the intense movie: black swan, in the cinema, and hung out with people in the hostel.
I found myself mentally tired and bored the second day. At first I tried to fight it, and talked to some others that shared the same problem. Later on, I realized that I was wrong to do so.
When you travel, you don`t allow yourself to be in a bad mood because you feel like you have no right to. You start to take things for granted as you`ve already seen so much, and thats when a lot of people start looking back too much and get homesick. Yet its only natural to have ups and downs, and though you might be down for a reason, sometimes its good to let yourself feel it a bit before you kill it with a change of scenery or activity. Maybe cry to a sad movie and let a lot of pressure go. Very often you also need to exercise or to be productive.
Travelling can be a very superficial experience, where you only search for highs and pleasure. Sometimes what you need is actually pain, to remind you how good life is. Thats one of the good things about some treks and riding. Sometimes you need to take in the unfortunes of the people you see. Still, I don`t go around feeling sorry for everyone. I`m not that big of an idiot. That woman selling gums on the street corner could be the happiest woman I`ve ever seen.
The bad mood passed after watching the sunset from the mirador, overlooking the city and surrounding mountaintops. Later on, I went with an irish woman to see a fountain-light show in the main park, which was peaceful beneath the stars, yet they enjoyed playing everything from japanese, classical and dance music to it.






The next morning, I had some of the crappy breakfast, read in the strong sun and went with a danish friend to rent bicycles. You can`t, without a guide, so I decided to go to Potosi for a daytrip, after all. The bus ride was said to be amazing, and it was! 14 kr for the 3-4 hours by bus and 30-40 by taxi. Definatly recommending the taxi, as its faster and gives you the opportunity of stopping to take photos.
I booked a mine tour through "the real deal" and met some germans who brought me to this really nice hostel: koala den; 35 bolivianos pr night w (free) tv and Great movies, good breakfast, hot showers and free internet. Also very nice people.
The next morning, I did the Potosi mine tour. I wrote a long entry about Potosi and the mines, but its disappeared somehow.
Potosi would`ve been a rich city if they had been able to keep their silver-wealth. Instead, the mines are almost empty and Potosi is poor, without other income than the scarce silver and tourism. They will keep the mines open for as long as they can.
8 million people have died in those mines; many, african slaves. Families have and still work together. Boys from 13 to 65 work there now. Things are different: they chose how much they want to work and earn more than waitresses, f.inst.
There is no bathroom in there, and they never eat in the mines, no matter how many hours they work in that dust. They only chew coca leaves on the job, which is one of the gifts we as tourists bring, as well as dynamite, which you can buy in a normal shop.







Last photo is of the road between Potosi and Sucre. Worth a look.

02.03.11 A new travel buddy

Change of plans, again. After jobhunting online, Fernando came along, and we went for a ride. He first took me to his favorite sandwich place, where you can also play beach volley. We will!
Then he told me that we could go to the Amazon tomorrow morning, and we are. I let him get aquainted with Tornado, and he showed me all of La Paz and Valle de Luna. When we continued on to a beautiful lake in a quiet village, the rain started pouring, so we had to find shelter and eat cookies for an hour.
As Tornado still has too little force, we took him to the mechanic, but they said it will pass as we descend.
Later, I still had some shopping to do, and we trotted along to finish the search for rainpants and a memory stick. I'm a bit tired of speaking spanish all day, as he doesn't speak a word of english, but I`ll get used to it. Kinda have to.
We're not going to Rurrenabaque, where the rivers are all flooded, but an hour away, where its not supposed to be that bad. But yeah, I wont be able to post pictures for a while.

Back from the mountains

To start this off randomly, six days in the highland has made me look like an idiot. I blame that on the strong sun, but I also feel different.

I dropped Huayna Potosi to go with some guys from the hostel, for six days of trekking in the Las Cordilleras. Unfortunatly for us, Kings Cross is supposed to be better. The trip was then delayed one day, where I bought "Marching Powder"; the incredibly interesting book about the english guy who started making the San Pedro prison into a tourist attraction.
This prison is like nowhere else in the world, and for a bribe, you could earlier get in quite easy. Nowadays, they`re cracking down, so its very hard. I settled with reading the book in the nice park outside of it.

The San Pedro prison works its own political, economical and social system, where you pay an entrance fee, for an apartment(where you can have whatever you want) in a security and wealth divided zone system. Within these zones, you`ll find families living together, restaurants, markets, shops, and in the heavyer areas: a cocain factory that produces some of the purest stuff you can get hold off. The tourist usually sniff this stuff together with the tour guide, as the police never enters this zone, where you`ll be receiving the tour.
How this prison system, where you can bribe yourself to a day off, with escort, works on money, and the rest of Bolivia, is shocklingly described in this great book. It was pretty strange to read it, looking at the place where things were still going on.

But back to the trip!
My travel companions and me made up a quite nice team. There were two Israelis, who taught me a bit of Hebrew, and a New Zealander that unfortunatly had a worsening mouth infection from Huayna Potosi. He had come to La Paz by motorcycle, too, so I could get some useful input. We were all gonna build a raft and raft the river Tuichi to Rurrenabaque, in ten days. Due to the rivers alarming strenght now in the rainy season, and the fact that I`d rather squeeze in some horseback-time in Tupiza, I had to be the chicken and bail out.
Our bolivian guide, Fernando, who we all grew very close to on this trip, has convinced us all to go to the big carneval in Oruro, and then the Amazon, as there is flooding going on. He started off as a serious tour guide, and ended up as a teasing little baby, who just loves his glacier caves.

It took us ten hours by bus to get to a deserted little town, where we spent the night in a non-isolated house with dusty and rocky floors. We then woke up to find snowcovered llamas outside, we simply thought: ooh boy...
The first trek to our camping spot lasted a few hours, and the weather kept changing(probably the most annoying part, as you have to change clothes all of the time). We passed 5000moh at the most. Always when you`re trekking in altitude, its kind of like yoga, as you have to focus a lot on your breath. I don`t like walking slow, so I always stayed in the head of the group, and waited for the rest, instead. The guide was pleased that we walked so fast. He brought delicious snacks, and I was soon to be named the cookie monster, as I constantly was covered in crumbles.
We crossed a river an hour before setting up camp by a lake. That was cold, but not as bad as the morning we were returning. We were wet and cold when we reached camp, but after changing and chilling a bit, the good mood came creeping. That disappeared in the night, when the tents were damp and freezing. Me and one of the israelis clunched together and at the worst, I promised him a sunny day. He pretty much squeeked out: really? you think so?

I was right. We had a beautiful day. I mean seriously beautiful! Fernando also got to visit his caves. He would enter each one, and urge us to follow. It was quite spectacular, and destructive for my rain pants, who were completely destroyed by the day. I looked like a poor miner. We fell asleep twice in the sun. Lovely.. But the New Zealander was struggling with altitude, and didn`t follow us, as I was dead keen on going up an intimidatingly steep mountain(5700). We had already walked all day, had no more food, and the others grinned that I just wouldn`t give up. Still we had to return before dark, and stopped 200m before. I think the old me might have quit, but I`m definatly not.. the same, as I was. I needed to prove this to myself.

We were not as lucky the next afternoon. We couldn`t go where we were supposed to, and I preferred drying my feet instead of going for a walk on the glaciers. That just isn`t worth the risk, and I was right again. Coming early back to camp, changing, listening to music and reading my book, just kickstarted a great mood, just in time for the snow to stop and stars to appear. In Fernando`s tent, the cooker made it warm enough to sit down. We called it "the sauna". The food was still good(everything is good on treks where you need your calories), and we devoured a great deal of cookies and chai tea, as well. Naturally.
The rest of the nights in the tent, hadn`t been that cold, althought its impossible to sleep deeply in that altitude.

But that last morning.. ohhh, that last morning..
I`d say it was the worst morning of my life, and I could do nothing but fight with my own mind, reminding myself of the comforts that were awaiting, and how so many people suffered worse than me.
We woke up to the tent being Deeply covered in snow, and the snow still falling. We needed to wrap up the tent, put on icy socks and shoes, not have breakfast and hope that we would`t get too wet to not survive the next day. My rainpants were already a mess. The no breakfast thing doesn`t work for me, so... well.. the top layer of yesterdays pasta, thrown onto the ground... I couldn`t Just survive on coca pills!
After one hour, we were due to cross the river, which had almost grown to hip height. The river was warmer than my shoes, so that was fine, but it cut off all bloodcirculation in my legs for the following climb. It was a rough climb, and after an hour, I had given up that my feet would stop hurting. It didn`t matter how hot I got elsewhere, and exclaimed that we had to stop before I`d loose them. (such a whimp)
After warming and drying feet and socks, I said; fine, I can live with this. Fernando however, called my feet isicles and told us to wait a bit longer, giving me extra socks that absorbed a lot of the water, so when we started going down, I could remove them and my feet would have circulation once more. Everything after that was amazing because that morning of freezing feet, losing their nerves, starving and being tired from the uphills, didn`t knock me Completely down. I wasn`t cold elsewhere, and the pain would pass. And I`m on a holiday, I thought to myself..

We were supposed to walk further, but honestly.. we were thrilled by the idea of a car lift to the hot springs. We were gonna catch a night bus to La Paz, but there wasn`t one going that night, a bus driver said. In such small villages, if a bus goes or not, depends on rain... You never know if the bus is actually gonna come, or when!
The villagers offered us beds in case it didn`t, but in the end, it showed up at the exact time I had betted, while we were sitting in a friendly mans little shabby shop, drinking tea and jabbering on.
The man was lovely, and was so keen on learning english that he had bought a grammar booklet and everything. The village itself was pretty dead, apart from alpacas trodding around in the streets, and later on, some teenagers drinking beer around a truck.
It was a wonderful sight to see the bus arrive, with seats available. It was a hell of a bumpy ride, but we got back to La Paz in the morning!
I`ve had a loong, fantastic shower, breakfast, a long nap, chilled out and ahh.. Its just so good to get out and back into your comfort zone. Especially when you can get such cheap massages and good food.
The plan is now to go to Valle de Luna with Fernando, tomorrow. Shop some necesseties and then take off for Sucre the next day. I`m catching a bus back up to Oruro and then La Paz, to fly to the Amazon, when its dryer. A ten hour bus ride costs 25kr, which wont get you 15 minutes in my hometown.

La Pazing the time

Dear God, what a title. Buut but, I can`t help myself!

Yesterday I went to the witches market with two australian girls. I got a good massage that fixed my back, for 50 bolivianos(45min). I thought that was pretty cheap, but I just discovered a massage place inside a swimming pool building, three blocks up from Loki, that charges 25 bolivianos for an hour! Thats like 20 NOK...

I bought some necesseties and nice shoes for 47 bolivianos, met a lot of nice locals that were constantly warning me about keeping my stuff safe, etc. While buying some bike- equipment, I stayed a while, talking to the store owner and his friend, Raoul, who was a cop. Raoul offered me a ride on the back of his bike. He was a really nice guy. Invited me for dinner when he dropped me off, even. It wouldn`t have been dangerous to be n the back, as the traffic is so slow at that hour, that I could`ve jumped off anytime. Was just fun to pass by my friends on the street.

We all hung out at the hostel that night. I really like Loki! Tall ceilings, classic interior design, nice people. Once again, I wasn't able to sleep long. Altitude and my day rythm makes it so hard!
I went to find a mechanic for some repair and update. In the parking house, one of the guys offered to show me where to go. He went with me on the back, pretty high up, to one of his friends who charged too much. I replaced the mirrors myself, and we went to another place where the really nice Enrique charged me half! He fixed my signal light, and we made an appointment for tomorrow morning. Tornado`s going to do so much better with a little force. He keps shutting off.
The same guy who showed me the way(three blocks up from Loki, and to the right), works in that swimming pool place, so he gave me a tour. 22 bolivianos for swimming and sauna. I`m going there for the massage when it opens at 3 pm. My friends are all doing the death road, until 7-8ish, while I`ve got lots of shopping to do in the main market, which is ten minutes away.

Isla del Sol and La Paz

Copacabana is touristy. There are seriously english signs all over the place, and the locals seem tired of idiot gringos. It is however funny and charming how they dress up their cars with flowers for good luck. I guess they really need that!
I watched the sunset by the beach, as two australians asked me to join them. We went to a nice little place later on and met some other americans. I met those australians again last night for dinner, here in La Paz.
The morning I was taking the very very slow boat to Isla del Sol, I met two great norwegian girls that I hung out with for that whole trip. The start was pretty miserable, as it was raining and Cold!
It did get much better. We went to see the ruins, hung out on a pir while chileans were playing guitar, had a nap, made pasta on a wood-oven(it takes forever in that altitude, and the water doesn't really boil). Iris threw up in the night, possibly because of that. After all this, we went down to the beach, where we enjoyed more chilean guitarplay, a fireplace, moon and the stars. There are a lot of people staying in tents on the beach.
I got up early and went for a quiet walk, did some yoga on top of the hill, chilled on the beach and got on the boat to Copacabana. Unfortunatly, I forgot to give the girls their room key so that they could get their stuff when they`d leave on the next boat... Sorry!

When I came back to Copacabana, the laundry woman who had tried to clean my gasoline smelling clothes, were trying to charge me 50 bolivianos because the next batch of clothes she had washed, smelled too. It was my first fight in spanish. I ended up paying 20 for her misfortune. My bag still stinks.
The ride to La Paz was alright. The floating raft experience was interesting. Thats how you cross the lake. Getting into the city is always a bit of a hassle, and La Paz is steep, so at one point, some guys actually had to push me up a hill. I found Loki in the end, but there`s no parking, so my bike is in a parqueador. I also found the guys staying in the hostel, too. I didn`t go out with them last night because I got a heavy message...:
- I'm too late to take the chemistry exam - thus I can`t study next year! I`ve had a very very slow morning today, trying to realize this and figure out what I want to do. I never knew how ready I really was to start, and now I can't... feel like a mess.
We`re gonna go for some massages now, so I`ll... yeah... update with pictures later. Its good to be somewhere where I can relax for a bit. I really like this traditional looking hostel with a really tall ceiling. I`ll try to find some paz in La Paz.